The Other Side of the Story
by Mel1592
Summary: A look at Zin's POV of this whole thing


Title: The Other Side of the Story Author: Mel Rating: G Teaser: Zin does some thinking about his side of the conflict Spoilers: a few minors for "What lies Beneath" and maybe "Into the Breach" Disclaimer: They're not mine, I just take them out of Lion's Gates toybox, play with them for a while, then return them unharmed. The song snippets belong to Disney, I don't make any claims on them either, although I did change one or two words in the second one to fit the story. Credit also goes to Blue Raven whose fics yet again figured in to inspiring me Feedback: Oh yes, feed me, feed me!  
  
Notes: This is one that's been bouncing around in my head for a while. It's probably the first time anyone's ever done a fic from Zin's POV. I also kind of figured it might be good to give him some fic time because we naturally devote most fic to Cole and Mel. I have to give credit for some of the inspiration to some of Raven's fics, and some of it is probably proof that I've been listening to Disney songs too much LOL. ("Be Prepared" from Lion King and "My Lullaby" from Lion King 2). It's a stand-alone fic, but I might expand on some of the ideas in it later on.  
  
.Be prepared for the chance of a lifetime  
  
Be prepared for sensational news A shining new era is tiptoeing nearer. .I know it sounds sordid, but you'll be rewarded When at last I am given my dues And injustice deliciously squared Be prepared.  
  
.Be prepared for the coup of the century  
  
Be prepared for the murkiest scam  
  
Meticulous planning  
  
Tenacity spanning Decades of denial Is simply why I'll Be king undesputed, Respected, saluted And seen for the wonder I am Yes my teeth and ambitions are bared Be prepared!  
  
-Be Prepared, Lion King  
  
  
  
Zin paced angrily across the floor of his penthouse headquarters. He still couldn't believe that he'd had the weapon in his hands only to be defeated and forced to start everything from the beginning again because of that meddlesome Tracker and his half-breed companion. He'd known that he shouldn't have trusted Nestov, but had gone against his judgement and done it anyway. The Dessarian had proved to be as untrustworthy, if not more so, than any Vardian, and it had cost him months of work and nearly his life.  
  
Tracking down the weapon again wouldn't be especially difficult, but the risk was higher now. Not only was Daggon always on his heels as before, but he had that 'Mel' to worry about. He'd always thought her expendable before, not good for anything except possibly to use as bait for the Tracker. But she was now just as much of a threat as he was. Zin decided to start constructing some sort of plan to capture her, not only to try and trap Daggon, but because it would be interesting-and possibly even helpful- to run some tests and experiments and to gain insight into the inner workings of her hybrid's body.  
  
But the most important thing on his mind was still getting to the Brack. He felt it his duty as a Vardian to return it to its rightful hands and try to reclaim some of the planet's former glory. Like all young Vardians, he'd heard the tales of his species' glorious past. Stories of how Varda had once dominated not only the planets of the Migar system, but numerous other planets as well. At one time, they had lived on the two habitable planets of this system, Earth and Mars. But Mars had undergone extreme climate changes, rendering it uninhabitable, and the growing population and curiosity of these primitive beasts who called themselves humans had caused the ancient Vardians to all but abandon Earth to the creatures.  
  
Most of the other planets had lived in fear of the Vardian army, but eventually the other five planets of the Migar system had banded together, forming the Migar Federation, and once united, had managed to invade Varda. The Vardians fought back, but their resistance was weakened and they eventually had no option but to surrender and sign a treaty of alliance with the Migar Federation. At the time, the planet's top scientists had already been working on the Brack, but the weapon had to be sent to Earth to hide it from the invading Migar armies, who would have stolen it. The scientists deceived the invaders with a replica and the Migar council had believed that it was destroying the weapon. The Vardians had rebuilt, but had decided that it was not safe at the time to try and retrieve the weapon. Thousands of years passed, and by now, the stories were seen as no more true than the childhood fables that humans called fairy tales. Few believed them anymore, and most thought that the Brack was either legend or long since destroyed.  
  
That was why the Scientific Consortium of Varda had laughed at him when he proposed creating a wormhole and trying to retrieve it. A wave of anger washed over him as he recalled their reaction. They'd said that the idea was ridiculous. It was too technologically difficult and expensive to construct a wormhole and the Brack was just an old legend; the idea of trying to retrieve it was ludicrous. He'd gathered more evidence that his theory was true and feasible, but they had refused to even listen to him.  
  
At the time, Zin was a young, eager scientist who had just completed his years of study. He had done well in both his primary and higher education classes, and his main educator at the Academy, Professor Daggon, had been extremely impressed with the young Vardian. It was during the Cirronian's first work cycle at the Academy after completing his own training, and the two were not that far apart in age. They found that they shared common scientific interests, and had eventually formed a friendship, despite the two species' seemingly innate dislike for each other. They kept in contact even after Daggon left the Academy to join the Tracker corps and Zin had gone to begin his final period of study, a sort of apprenticeship with an experienced scientist.  
  
He'd begun planning his project as soon as he'd started working on his own. To have it rejected after so much work had been a harsh blow. Even worse was when he'd returned to his lab to find much of his work destroyed. Someone had smashed his equipment and destroyed much of his research. He'd eventually recovered most of it, but the experience had further strengthened his resolve. If they would not give him the funding and support he needed, he would complete his plan himself and make them sorry they had spurned him as they had.  
  
In order to complete his goal, he had to gather a lot of knowledge as well as enlist the help of some of Migar's finest criminal minds. He knew that one of the best places to get what he needed was the Tracker Corps. He did not become a Tracker himself, but secured a position in the research area of the corps. With his background in physics and chemistry, he was able to get a job helping to develop new weapons technologies for the Corps. Mostly, it was applying various theories and concepts to the way that the devices were powered and how they operated. He was also often frequently asked to help demonstrate the new technologies to the Trackers and explain how they worked. This often enabled him to overhear the Trackers talking about their recent tracks and criminals they had captured, and to glean from it the names of some who might be of use to him.  
  
Being around the Corps also gave him more contact with Daggon. The Cirronian had since taken a mate and the two now had a young child. Zin and his own mate, Kalena, a biochemist he'd met during his last year at the academy, often took meals with them. But, as good a friend as Daggon was, he was also a threat. If he discovered Zin's plan, he would feel honor- bound as a Cirronian and a Tracker, to turn him into his superiors. Being sent to Sar-Top would be the death of his plan. He mantained good relations with Daggon and his new wife but kept a heavy guard up to avoid any accidental slip-ups that would endanger his plan. In the past, he had sometimes confided in the Cirronian, but now he told information only to his advisors and true closest friends, a Vardian named Mederan, and a Dessarian named Yhir.  
  
His next opportunity had offered itself in the form of another job opening. He caught word that Sar-Top was in need of a new Chief of Security, and immediately set about securing the job. Although he was technically a scientist, he was able to convince the officials at Sar-Top to allow him to begin training for the position at the beginning of the new work cycle. The knowledge he'd gained from the Tracker Corps was very helpful, and with the training he received, he was able to get the job.. This gave him access to information on every criminal in the prison, and an easy way to get them out. He divided what spare time he had between testing and perfecting his wormhole experiment, and sitting at one of the machines in the records room, looking for the help he would need. He often did this at night, after his shift ended, when very few people entered the records room and he was afforded relative privacy. From the 15,000 inmates, he selected 250. Scientists, master thieves, expert con men, some skilled accountants- imprisoned for aiding criminal organizations-assassins and a couple of convicted terrorists were all chosen. All of them agreed to help, which was not surprising considering the alternative of staying on Sar-top.  
  
Zin had thought that his problems with Daggon were over, but he was surprised to see the Cirronian show up one day looking devastated, his eyes all but dead. He learned that the Vardian Rhee had murdered the Tracker's wife and daughter, and that the Cirronian had transferred here to work as a guard. He acted sympathetic and comforting, but inside was almost happy at the turn of events. Rhee would be a valuable addition to his crew of helpers, and the Vardian, whose brother Rammel had already agreed to come, was eager to help. Zin was nervous having Daggon so close again, but the Cirronian was so consumed with grief that he was much less of a threat than he'd been before.  
  
The night of the escape, he first sent Rhee through the wormhole to ensure its safety. As he expected, Daggon followed the escaping Vardian, giving Zin a chance to get everyone through and hopefully evade detection until Daggon had captured Rhee and gone back through the wormhole. Everything had gone smoothly until one of the other guards caught on that someone had disabled the security perimeter, with its energy fence, usually lethal to anyone attempting to escape. Because of that, only 215 of the 251 escapees had managed to get into the wormhole. Faced with an approaching group of armed guards and Trackers, Zin had no choice but to urge his two advisors, Mederan and Yhir, into the wormhole, then to follow himself.  
  
Unfortunately, Daggon had felt their presence and stayed on Earth. Zin had tried to threaten him with the life of the half-breed, but he had managed to save her and with the wormhole collapsing, they were all on Earth to stay. He would rather have not had to threaten to take the Cirronian's life so many times as he had done since he'd come here, but he'd had no choice in the matter. He could not allow Daggon to keep interfering with his plans.  
  
He'd had an idea of the weapon's approximate location, but hadn't learned the precise location of the device until he'd obtained those government documents. He knew of two maps hidden on Earth, but Daggon had stopped Rahm from delivering the first and Zarenth from delevering the second. The hard work it had taken Zin to find the device had seemed to pay off until that bothersome Dessarian Nestov had double-crossed him. He knew that he might still be trapped in that vault if one of his scientists hadn't managed to create a device that used neutron beams to vaporize matter. After two weeks of digging and a few tense moments as the weapon disintegrated one wall of his prison, he had finally been freed. The fugitives, he learned, had managed to escape again after being returned to Sar-Top and had come back to Earth. Unfortunately, so had Daggon. Worse still, Daggon's companion was not human, as he'd thought, but part human and part Cirronian, making her able to use the Tracker's collector, and thus, more dangerous than he'd expected.  
  
It had taken several weeks just to regain his strength enough to do anything useful, and then he had to reorganize his group and restore order after the chaos of the past weeks. The Brack had been re-hidden, and he would have to find it again. At the same time, he would have to find some way to disable the Tracker and his companion. One Cirronian was bothersome enough, but knowing that there were now two was even more troubling. As he'd said before, it was two Cirronians too many.  
  
He wanted to get off of this 'stinking hunk of rock' as Cedra had called it, as soon as possible. Besides being annoyingly primitive, it was also a lonely place. He hadn't seen Kalena in half a Vardian year, or nearly one whole Earth year. She was to have given birth to their second child not long after he'd left. Thus far, it had never met its father, and no doubt the oldest would be asking every day if his father were coming home. After what had happened, if Daggon had talked to her, she might even think he was dead now. He wished there were a way to get a transmission to her from this place, but there wasn't.  
  
After he found the weapon, he would return to Varda and force his fellow scientists to give him the respect he deserved. He intended to try to replicate the Brack and move against the planet's leadership. He smiled to himself as he envisioned the Vardian army once again terrorizing every planet in their path and dominating the galaxy, the planet's glorious return to power finally realized, while he and his mate ruled over it all. No one would dare laugh at him or disrespect him ever again. By then, Daggon and the half-breed 'keeper' would be long gone along with the rest of this useless waste of a planet and its weak inhabitants, destroyed by the energy backlash the Brack would create on its way through the wormhole.  
  
Just a matter of time, he thought as he surveyed the Chicago skyline from his window, Just a matter of time.  
  
"I've been exiled, persecuted, left alone with no defense  
  
When I think of what those brutes did, I get a little tense  
  
But I dream a dream so pretty that I don't feel so depressed 'Cause it soothes my inner Vardian and it helps me get some rest.  
  
.Now the past I've tried foregetting And my foes I could forgive Trouble is I know it's petty I hate to let them live.  
  
.The battle may be bloody, but that kind of works for me A melody of angry growls A counterpoint of painful howls A symphony of death oh my! That's my lullabye.  
  
.I can hear the cheering  
  
And the time is nearing And then our flag will fly Against a blood red sky That's my lullaby"  
  
-My lullaby, Lion King 2: Simba's Pride 


End file.
